Nezgar

Here's the contents of dirbak2.doc from the .ARC: Dir/Bak v1.1 by Ed Bachman .1987 Written for the Lehigh Valley Atari Users Group. L.V.A.U.G. Dir/Bak is a utility program that backs up the directory information on a hard drive using Sparta DOS. v3.2. This utility will NOT back-up a floppy disk. You can,however,write your back-up data to a floppy. 2 seperate programs make up this utility, a back-up and a restore program. Both programs can be run in 2 ways. They can be run as a simple program that will prompt you for the needed information. Or, you can pass parameters from the DOS command line,and the program will execute without asking for input.(a nice feature when running out of a batchfile). Dir/Bak outputs 2 data files. A sequence file,(using the *.SEQ extender) and a data file (using the *.REC extender). The actual file name is that of the volume name of the drive you back-up. NOTE:due to this feature, TRY to avoid having DOS wild-cards in your volume name,this program will change any lower-case or inverse characters to upper case, while spaces are ignored.Heres a chance to use that CHVOL.COM file that comes with the DOS.REMEMBER! try to use unique volume names as this allows you to make multi-drive back-ups from a batch file. Running Dir/Bak. As I mentioned earlier,there are 2 ways of running this file. Here we'll discuss the first. Type the filename from the command line, eg. D1:DIRBAK<RETURN>. The file will run, and you will be prompted for the source and destination drives etc. To run from a batch file simply add the "/" (parameters). eg. D1:DIRBAK /23<RETURN> The first number being the source drive,the second, the destination drive. The 'Save file sector map' option to make use of this option simply add a "slash S" </S> to the parameter as shown above. eg. D1:DIRBAK /23/S<Return> note: no space between parameters. Running Dir/Bak restore. running this program is identical to running the back-up program except it requires the filename of the data files you wish to use.(just the 8 character filename is needed,not the extender). The restore file WITH parameters will look like this. eg. D1:DRESTORE /32 /HARDRIV1<RETURN> The first number being the drive with the data files,the second, the drive you hope to save by running this utility on. And third, the filename of the datafiles (actually the volume name of the drive they were saved from). >>>NOTICE<<< This utility, like other programs of this sort, has the potential to be DISASTEROUS! if mis-used. CAUTION must be used when typing in drive assigns. PARTICULARLY with multiple hard drives as this utility has no way of checking what files belong to what drive YOU are responsible for that! and niether I nor LVAUG will be responsible for lost data thru the use of this program. This utility is meant simply as a little extra insurance against a drive crash, hopefully allowing the user the opportunity to save as much data as possible from the drive. This program does NOT repair bad files. Also bear in mind that any files put on the drive between the time the drive is backed-up by Dir/Bak, and the time that the restore file is run, WILL be lost. well thats about it, enjoy those hard drives! Any further questions or comments can be addressed to me on the NAC-ACK BBS 24hrs 300/1200 baud, 215-837-1813. enjoy! Ed.

Happy 1050 software could transfer files to/from 180K single sided MS-DOS disks, which are pretty rare... most drives anyone still has would have been double sided, and disks normally formatted as such, so you'd have to manually change options on the DOS format command to make a single sided disk for this purpose. Personally, I am most impressed with the new option to use the PCLINK driver on SDX, and RespeQt on the PC to directly access a folder on a the PC's disks. This option even maintains time stamps when copying either way, which are lost when dropping files into and out of ATR files, or when using the happy conversion utility.

So, i'm curious - the IS Plate is fully Happy compatible? Like, you can use the happy 7.1 backup option to copy protected disks? If so, that's quite the feature to include support for, along with everything else on that board! Now I want one lol. I can send you an ATR of Happy 7.1 software if you lost it.

Looks like you have an IS Plate. Check out this thread, pictures match: http://atariage.com/forums/topic/254539-the-uk-1050-is-plate-upgrade/ Excerpt from the page 6 article http://www.page6.org/archive/issue_27/page_50.htmthat might explain why you intermittently see it as 'slow mode' - it's literally booting up as a stock 1050: "One very useful feature of the drive is not mentioned in the manual - the drive can be switched to standard 1050 emulation by switching on with write protect enabled (either by a write protected disk or an unprotected disk partially inserted). ISP is enabled by switching on with the drive empty or an unprotected disk installed." Still doesn't explain the drive going stone cold dead though, but maybe does the problem occur in both modes?

I think it was two weeks after my last order before it actually hit the post office. I'd give him at least another week for sure. You will get a tracking number, probably a few days before he actually mails it. If you got the confirmation email you know it's 'in the queue'.

It should always revert back to buffered read (fast) mode after a power cycle. All programming is cleared. Definitely sounds odd. Are you able to replace the original 6507 CPU and ROM (or swap from another 1050) to see if the rest of the drive functions ok as stock? I have an old knock off board that also started acting up. Initially i could run it for an hour or so, then afterwards it would just lockup. Then after a few days the time to death after poweron rapidly declined - 10 5 1 minute, seconds etc. Leave it off for a week, turn it on, it might work fine for 5 minutes... This drive did get some humidity exposure (aka wet) from a basement flood a decade ago, and hadnt been powered on since, so I highly suspect some damage to something on the board... I did put some orders for replacement CPU and RAM for the board to see if I can revive it for fun. I was delighted to discover I could purchase new re-made happy boards from atariMax, and the drive has been 'happy' since then with the new replacement, but I'm curious to give a last stab at the glitched board. The happy is a real time saver with the buffered warp speed for me for my project to copy my boxes of real disks to ATR's to back them up... and useful for backing up copy-protected disks, and of course it adds Double-Density support. If you don't have much on floppy anymore then yeah it might not be a big loss...

Is there any advantage to this than the $22 XE one listed at Best Electronics? I haven't actually ordered anything yet from Best myself before, maybe minimum orders/shipping are a factor there. I may be in the market for a few of these if my attempts to repair fail.

Antonia is 65816, 4MB RAM and flashable OS's, but the normal atari 1.79Mhz, no SDX. PM Simius about availability. If you want faster and built in SDX I think best to look at is rapidus / ultimate 1mb combo. Not sure if those fit in a 600xl.

Does the same problem ATR work on the same machine when copied to a real drive? If maybe they're protected programs, maybe try RUN''D:file.ext insead of load? Maybe for some reason it wants a specific basic ROM (A vs B vs C rev) Is the RAM in the machine ok? Check with selftest (bye command from basic) How much is free? Check with: ? fre(0) Can you share the specific ATR here or privately and I/we can test it as well?

Curiosity got the better of me... I cracked open my USD drive this evening, removed the double-stack of 6810's and replaced it with a single 6810 which was tested working in a stock drive. Drive light turns on, but dead otherwise. Put original ram stack back in, away it goes. My U10 is a just a 2732 EPROM from way back when labelled "USD2" so not sure if its different from an authentic original.

So in a quick look to see who might be behind the domain... the domain is registered at Godaddy.com... (-1 points, registrar has an unprofessional rap) - private registration, website is hosted at wix.com (cheap hosting for those with no web design experience) This seems to suggest a small shop behind the domain... MX records point to Microsoft Office 365/Exchange Online, so either they are just picking-and-choosing cloud hosting services, or they are part of a much larger organization that uses O365 for Corportate E-mail. Website running on Amazon AWS datacenter (probably standard for WIX) and confirmation e-mail routed from a 'siteprotect.com' server in australia. Would have to compare against domains of a number of other companies to see if any have similar configurations to maybe match them up. I guess not uncommon for companies to setup masked marketing domains/sites ... it seems like its atari.. But even the Youtube account used for the video is new. All very well masked...

Hopefolly not yet another 2600 flashback... maybe some 8-bit computer games? St? Jaguar? But the wood finish says 2600... yawn

I'm also very curious if there exists such a ROM only upgrade to give USD ultraspeed, even if it is just for SD and ED. Maybe _The Doctor__ either had a modified USD ROM that disabled the ram check, or it was actually a 1050 Turbo ROM?

Haven't tried alternate OS's yet, but had some fun playing with the different memory configurations, and 1MB ramdisk on SpartaDOS 3.2d using John Pickens Hyperspeed ramdisk driver in my 600XL. The coolest part is not needing to upgrade the main memory to 64KB, but removing the onboard ram chips entirely... and the basic & OS ROM's too makes for a fun picture to show. Hopefully you have the firmware that works with SIDE2. I am waiting for a USB Blaster from ebay/china to re-program the altera CPLD, supposedly by connecting to that red block on the board. Never done that before but I've got the windows software installed ready to go when it arrives! Being without SDX is kinda crippling. Looking fwd to getting that going so I can play with stuff like 4MB Axlon, and the liinear Ramdisk driver.

6MB! Wow I don't think my 8-Bit has ever seen a file this large before! It took maybe 10-15 minutes just to copy it to my SIDE2 over 89Kbps PCLINK. But it works!

Many thanks to Bryan, I have received and installed a replacement latch in this 1050 drive, and after a little lubrication and it's new 6810 ram chip its purring like a kitten now! One more hardware challenge won, and another 1050 saved from the parts bin.

I didn't even notice until comparing it with the youtube video that indeed the NTSC computer is playing the whole thing 20% faster. With that in mind, to get an NTSC machine to play it at the same perceived speed - could the background processing work load 'per second' be spread out over 60 Vblanks instead of 50 ? Then would you essentially have the same total background processing time available over a 1 second timespan?

With you there!! I have so many disks that are borderline OK it was initially challenging restoring my 1050's, as I wasn't sure if problems were disk or drive related. I called every computer shop in Regina (not too many really...) Probably would fare better in larger centres. I eventually found one shop that had an open 10pk box dated 1991 with 8 unused FujiFilm MD2D disks left, and they are fantastic. No noise at all and the magnetic surfaces look glass smooth. Great disks to put the sector copier and happy loaders, 1050 diagnostics, etc on. I also noticed the yuck shipping rates from the states on ebay, making any 5.25 disks really not worth it through that route. Hoping a line on some disks pans out from my brother in Vancouver..

I just ran this successfully on my NTSC 130XE (320KB Ram) with Ultimate Cart and Commodore 1702 Monitor. With lyrics, the screen flashes/glitches every bass-drum beat. With Lyrics off, the screen merely drops down 8? scanlines for one scan of the screen every bass drum beat. Just the classic 'too many scanlines' problem i think on NTSC machine. Although it seems there's a bunch of unused space at the top, picture could be shifted up so extra scanlines that exceed NTSC are not needed? Or maybe its just a processing time thing - not enough CPU cycles left after screen draw. But shortening the displaylist may help with that too...

I had a couple 1050's that had some missing screws, and was delighted to match up the screws at Lowe's. 6 x 3/4 SS Pan Head Phillips. Only thing I didn't notice until when I went to use them is the "SS" means stainless steel, so my magnetic tipped screwdriver won't pull them out of those deep holes haha. So they go on the faceplate holes. I'll know better next time!

Never had any of the CSS mods, but I'm curious - Did the Super Archiver, Super Archiver II, Bitwriter, for the 1050 support any high-speed modes for day to day use? IE Non-buffered altered skew like Indus or USD, or buffered like Happy? My only 'archiver' exposure was with the Happy-to-Chip Archiver that would temporarily convert the 1050 to I believe essentially what the 810 Chip archiver would have been. When in that mode there's no ultraspeed, nothing but single density support, and SDX 4.48 won't even talk to it.

I am curious if you ever found a Canadian source for belts that fit? (as I'm also in Canada) Looking to refresh a few Tandon drives if I can find them cheaply...

You drop it in around the drum from the top of the drive, then pull it out from the bottom to hook onto the drive motor.

That idea for LED's to show which RAM bank is active is pretty cool. I guess there's all kinds of signals/registers that could be visualized this way that would look cool.

the WST (Hong Kong) drives are generally the highest regarded. Mine was quiet when seeking, and disk insertion, latching closed, and ejecting were very smooth and loose. Most Tandon/Singapore drives feel much more rigid, stiff, and noisy generaly to me. However, the WST I had used to be my primary driver years ago with a happy and write-protect switch mod isn't so healthy these days, as it seems it may have gone out of alignment as it has trouble reading some tracks, and i can visually see it re-stepping on some tracks, and reading them finally after a delay. Recently I have made a couple drives with tandon/Singapore Mech purr quite nicely with thorough lubrication of the slider rails and top spinner clamp, and replaced the felt pressure pads. One of them had a very noisy rattle on seeking which I was able to almost completely eliminate by putting a perfectly sized screw through the top of the spring-loaded hook/plate where it holds onto the stepper strip, (whatever thats called...) Now testing with sequential seeks from track 0 to 39 and back are just a quiet humm now, just like I remember my WST drive. These will be my new workhorses for ATR'ing my disk collection.